Iron Your Own Shirt, Ernie

When he got dressed on January 17, 2006 to deliver his budget address, Governor Ernie Fletcher surely donned a suit, underwear, socks, shoes, and a shirt made by sweatshop workers in Asia, Central America, and South America. These workers most likely made his clothes in conditions that were unpleasant, unhealthy, and possibly dangerous and for a very low wage. His shirt was most likely ironed by a Kentucky worker who was under-insured and working at or near the minimum wage in a workplace that was not quite as pleasant as Governor Fletcher’s office.
In the course of his budget address and his State of the Commonwealth address, Governor Fletcher proposed to correct those conditions he perceives as Kentucky’s most pressing problems by seeking a constitutional amendment to limit the amounts juries can award to Kentuckians injured or killed by preventable medical errors, enacting a so-called “right to work” law, and suspending prevailing wage laws for Kentucky construction projects. A person wouldn’t have to go very far out on a limb to observe that anyone who believes that these are Kentucky’s most critical problems does not iron his own shirts.
Kentucky has more than 8,000 physicians and 7,000 of them have never had to pay a medical malpractice claim. Almost half of the medical malpractice payouts over the past ten years have been made on behalf of fewer than 425 doctors. With an average payout of less than $100,000 and about three payouts a year over one million dollars, it doesn’t seem to this observer, who irons his own shirts, that we have a frivolous lawsuit crisis. Perhaps the governor’s medical licensure board has an oversight challenge or the Kentucky Medical Association has an opportunity to improve its policing of its own members, but this does not look like a lawyer or jury problem to me. Curiously, Doctor Fletcher did not prescribe either of these simple remedies.
Governor Fletcher is a member of the political party that has historically been hostile to organized labor, minimum wage laws, and safety standards in workplaces like coal mines and construction sites, so his call for the legislation styled by party spinmasters as “right to work” is no surprise. “Right to Work” is the decades-long attempt by big business to destroy unions. If you don’t believe me, google it. Union representation is very inconvenient for those who would sacrifice a living wage, safety standards, and decent working conditions for the bottom line. Some people who may iron their own shirts have referred to the legislation as “right to work for a lower wage” or “right to die in a non-union coalmine.
It is curious that some of the very same people who think that it is a good idea to suspend prevailing wage for skilled and semi-skilled workers are screaming for the Federal government to close our southern borders. When a state creates more low wage jobs, doesn’t it make sense that the state attracts more low wage workers. Doesn’t that increase poverty and all the problems that poverty brings with it? Do we really want Kentucky’s skilled construction workers to draw unemployment while we import workers to work for sweatshop wages? Or does our governor want more Kentuckians to be sweatshop workers?
Clearly, Governor Fletcher is not speaking for Kentuckians who work for a living and iron their own shirts. Even if you don’t iron your own shirts, it probably makes sense to you that Kentucky is better off with more workers who make a living wage and work in safe and healthy workplaces. Your governor and legislators may need to know what you think because they probably don’t work for minimum wage, change their own oil, mow their own yards, get by without health insurance, or iron their own shirts.